Óla family and friends!
FIRST OF ALL!!! Congrats to Jessica and Trevor! And thank you to all of you who made sure that I knew, I received like 12 emails about it but I really only read the one from Jessica, thanks cuz! Love you!
I hope all is well in the U.S. Brazil is great. It has been really hot in the area Im in by today is pretty cold! Anyway I finally have a companion and my own area. I am in Londrina (part of my mission is in São Palo) and my area is Ibiporã. It is really nice, I think Derek would die if he saw some of the houses. I mean there are definitely parts that are not so nice but overall I think it is a really nice area. My companion´s name is Sister de Oliveira and she is from Rio de Janeiro and is 35 so that is a little different. But she is a great missionary. I am still getting used to teaching with another person and we are pretty different but I have a lot to learn from her.
Anyway so we´re teaching lots of people and we have this one guy that is like my favorite person ever. His name is Franzio, ok actually he´s not my FAVORITE person but I think he is hilarious. He talks SO loud...all the time and everything we say he just says AMEN to, its hilarious. But to be quite honest he doesnt really take the gospel seriously and he just accepts any committment we give him but doesnt follow through. Kind of sad. But hes great.
We had a goal to baptize someone this week, well I mean we always have that goal. But this week in our district meeting they gave us a specific goal for eac compaionship to baptize someone and so we were trying to find someone and I feel like we walked to all ends of the earth and talked to everyone but couldnt find someone. We had one girl that was taught the lessons a few years ago but her dad wouldnt let her get baptized and so we taught her yesterday and her dad said she could be baptized but now she isnt sure so well see.
I have had lots of opportunities to teach and bear testimony and it is a little different from the MTC mostly because Sister de Oliveira has a very different teaching style than me and I cant understand a lot of what they are saying but were working and I feel the spirit so everyday so were doing something right. But it is a lot more tiring than the MTC out here!! :) Every person I meet and we teaching I tell Sister Oliveira, I love them! They are so great! She doesnt really agree with me and always has something that dashes my hopes and dreams about them being baptized but I seriously think everyone here is the greatest person Ive ever met. But I cant really talk to them still and I dont really understand exactly what their problems are. And I have a really hard time remembering their names, but aside from all of those things were all pretty much best friends!
Anyway, Im excited to be here and learning from all of these missionaries that have been here longer than me, I live with two other sister and one of them in from the states and so she helps me understand what is going on A LOT! And it is so great to see the impact that the gospel can have in peoples lives becase it is so powerful and it really can change lives. There are a few teenagers who are ward missionaries and they have a goal to baptise 1 person a month and yesterday they went out contacting by themselves and got us some references. They are great and you should all get involved as well because missionary work is SO much more powerful with members! I hope you all will! And give the missionaries references! You have no idea how much it helps! I love you all! I love the gospel I love missionary work! Until next week!
Sister Brooks
Monday, May 30, 2011
Monday, May 23, 2011
May 23, 2011
Óla from Brasil!
Wow! The past 4 day have been so wonderful! I love it here, the weather has been SOOO perfect! I couldn´t ask for anything better. I don´t actually have a companion yet because trasfers aren´t until...actually I don´t know...the language barrier makes this a little difficult I am with 2 sisters right now and we all thought I would be gone today but who knows no one has told us anything yet so I´m just waiting. These sisters are really nice but I feel like they are jus babysitting me and it´s just awkward sometimes. I really want a companion, I was sure that when I got to the field I would have one but I still don´t. Oh well...I will soon enough!
I think my family will find this interesting but I really love the beans and rice, it is not like we had when I threw it up...that was gross...this stuff is good! :)
One of the girls I am with has been here for 6 weeks and was serving is the U.S. before waiting for her visa and the other is from Brasil and speaks so fast. Everything she says I have to ask her to repeat slower. It´s embarrassing but I do eventually get it and I can converse with everyone but I think I sound like a caveman! The sister from the U.S. says that I understand way better than she did which makes me feel better and everyday I understand a little more so that is good. And I have taught a few times and for the most part they understand me. Yesterday I had one girl who we were teaching and I was asking her a few questions and sharing something and after she asked me how long I had been here and I told her and she was like oh wow, you speak so well and I was like well I just hope that you understood what I was saying and she was like yeah I understood everything. But then later I had a different girl who seriously just looked at me and I was like I don´t understand about everything I said...so pretty much opposite experiences. Whatever it´ll come!
Ok so the first time I stopped someone in the street to tell them about why I am here and who I am and what I´m doing after I told her that we were missionaries she was like I don´t have time and walked away before I had time to say anything else...epic fail! Oh well! It was funny I wish you could have seen my face it was VERY discouraged. I´m over it now though.
My mission president and his wife are amazing! When I arrived, they had this banner in the airport and the other Elder I was with said that they were jumping up and down but I didn´t see it. Anyway they are just the greatest! I love them. They don´t speak English and Sister Tavares speaks VERY fast but when she slows it down we can communicate very well!
We had a baptism yesterday...well I would more say that they had a baptism because I had only talked to him like 1 time and he already had a baptismal date when I arrived. But still I was there. He is so cute, he is like 10 and his family is less active in the church and he told his mom that he wanted to be baptized and she didn´t want him to and he told her: mom this is my decision and I want to be. And so he was. And he reads the Book of Mormon on his own. It is just awesome!
I don´t have a whole lot else to say but I am so excited to be in Brasil and so excited to be doing this work. And I know that it is so true and it is changing people´s lives here. The message we bring can change anyone´s life and I´m just so excited to share it! I know that the only reason I can even speak this langauage like a caveman is because of the Holy Ghost and it is literally the hand of the Lord in my life, helping me bring His message to others.
I love you all! Have a wonderful week!
Sister Brooks
Wow! The past 4 day have been so wonderful! I love it here, the weather has been SOOO perfect! I couldn´t ask for anything better. I don´t actually have a companion yet because trasfers aren´t until...actually I don´t know...the language barrier makes this a little difficult I am with 2 sisters right now and we all thought I would be gone today but who knows no one has told us anything yet so I´m just waiting. These sisters are really nice but I feel like they are jus babysitting me and it´s just awkward sometimes. I really want a companion, I was sure that when I got to the field I would have one but I still don´t. Oh well...I will soon enough!
I think my family will find this interesting but I really love the beans and rice, it is not like we had when I threw it up...that was gross...this stuff is good! :)
One of the girls I am with has been here for 6 weeks and was serving is the U.S. before waiting for her visa and the other is from Brasil and speaks so fast. Everything she says I have to ask her to repeat slower. It´s embarrassing but I do eventually get it and I can converse with everyone but I think I sound like a caveman! The sister from the U.S. says that I understand way better than she did which makes me feel better and everyday I understand a little more so that is good. And I have taught a few times and for the most part they understand me. Yesterday I had one girl who we were teaching and I was asking her a few questions and sharing something and after she asked me how long I had been here and I told her and she was like oh wow, you speak so well and I was like well I just hope that you understood what I was saying and she was like yeah I understood everything. But then later I had a different girl who seriously just looked at me and I was like I don´t understand about everything I said...so pretty much opposite experiences. Whatever it´ll come!
Ok so the first time I stopped someone in the street to tell them about why I am here and who I am and what I´m doing after I told her that we were missionaries she was like I don´t have time and walked away before I had time to say anything else...epic fail! Oh well! It was funny I wish you could have seen my face it was VERY discouraged. I´m over it now though.
My mission president and his wife are amazing! When I arrived, they had this banner in the airport and the other Elder I was with said that they were jumping up and down but I didn´t see it. Anyway they are just the greatest! I love them. They don´t speak English and Sister Tavares speaks VERY fast but when she slows it down we can communicate very well!
We had a baptism yesterday...well I would more say that they had a baptism because I had only talked to him like 1 time and he already had a baptismal date when I arrived. But still I was there. He is so cute, he is like 10 and his family is less active in the church and he told his mom that he wanted to be baptized and she didn´t want him to and he told her: mom this is my decision and I want to be. And so he was. And he reads the Book of Mormon on his own. It is just awesome!
I don´t have a whole lot else to say but I am so excited to be in Brasil and so excited to be doing this work. And I know that it is so true and it is changing people´s lives here. The message we bring can change anyone´s life and I´m just so excited to share it! I know that the only reason I can even speak this langauage like a caveman is because of the Holy Ghost and it is literally the hand of the Lord in my life, helping me bring His message to others.
I love you all! Have a wonderful week!
Sister Brooks
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